cadet blogs

All during my classes this morning, I looked around at my classmates in various states of somnolence. Why, you might ask, were there so many drooping eyelids on a warm, sunny October morning? Aside from the fact that it’s Monday, last weekend was Parents Weekend. Proud Coast Guard parents from all parts of the country flocked to the Academy to see what daily life is like for their sons and daughters.

My Mom and Dad came to my cross country meet on Saturday, which was just down the road at Harkness Park. It was a gorgeous day for a race – sunny and around 60 :) – but extremely windy. Our team did really well, and a lot of girls got PR’s on our second 6K course of the season. It was nice to have so many fans! Every time I came around a corner there was someone cheering on Coast Guard runners. My Mom was extremely easy to spot in her bright orange Coast Guard sweatshirt. Cross country this year has been a blast. We have a lot of fun, especially at meets and off-base runs, and we’re also very competitive within our conference. A few weeks ago, we were ranked #10 out of all of the D3 schools in New England!

After the meet, my parents and I had a brick-oven baked pizza at Two Wives Pizza, which was delicious, and headed over to Clyde’s Cider Mill in Mystic. At the Cider Mill, we had fresh-pressed hot apple cider and apple cider doughnuts so fresh they were still steaming when they put them in the bag! Clyde’s is a really cool place – they have an apple cider press from 1898 that they still use. They also sell all kinds of delicious things – pies, apple dumplings, homemade doughnuts, pumpkin bread… all reasons that I love fall in New England!

As always, if you have any questions about life at the Coast Guard Academy, feel free to email me at Julia.T.Kane@uscga.edu.